Great Irish Households: Inventories from the Long Eighteenth Century
Great Irish Households jacket
Jacket showing a view of Carton House,
County Kildare, by William van der Hagen,
AuthorsTessa Murdoch (consultant editor): with inventories transcribed by Jessica Cunningham and Rebecca Campion; foreword by Toby Barnard; preface by Leslie Fitzpatrick; preambles by John Adamson, Rebecca Campion, Alec Cobbe, Jessica Cunningham and Edmund Joyce; appendices and indexes by John Adamson
Cover artistWilliam van der Hagen
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Release number
1st edition
SubjectSocial history, Material culture
PublishedCambridge
PublisherJohn Adamson
Publication date
17 November 2022
Media typePrint
Pages436
ISBN978-1-898565-17-8
OCLC1233305993
728.80941509033
WebsiteBook on publisher's website

Great Irish Households: Inventories from the Long Eighteenth Century presents in a single volume transcripts of inventories of fourteen great country houses, three Dublin town houses and one London town house, published as a tribute to the last Knight of Glin.[note 1] The inventories, all but two published for the first time, span the period from 1702, the year of William of Orange's death, to 1821, the year of George IV's coronation.

In 2003, Jane Fenlon, the historian of Irish art and architecture of the early modern period, had lamented the fact that inventories were a "rather neglected area of study" and had stressed how important it was that they "should not be treated as mere records of house furnishings" but "be seen as valuable research sources rich in information . . ."[1] Regrettably, as Simon Swynfen Jervis's book British and Irish inventories bears out, there is still a dearth of Irish household inventories available in published form. By making more of them available in transcript, however, the book Great Irish Households has helped meet this acknowledged need.[2]

Structure

A preface by Leslie Fitzpatrick[note 2] and a foreword by Toby Barnard give a broad historical setting for the transcriptions. The inventories themselves, drawn up for probate or for a variety of other purposes by specialist appraisers together with family members or their staff, are given preambles by way of introduction to the houses and are supplemented with a glossary and indexes to personal names[note 3] and to the items listed.[3] There are also appendices identifying the books listed in abridged form in inventories from three of the houses: at Kilkenny Castle, in the second Duchess of Ormonde's closet (1705); at the bishop's mansion house, Elphin, County Roscommon, in the study (1740); at Newbridge House, County Dublin, in the library (1821).[note 4]

The inventories are grouped as follows:

  The Ormonde inventories[note 6]

 

 

The end matter comprises:

  • Glossary
  • Appendix I: Sales by buyer at Captain Balfour's town house sale, 1741/2
  • Appendix II: Books in the 2nd Duchess of Ormonde's closet at Kilkenny Castle, County Kilkenny, 1705
  • Appendix III: Books in the bishop of Elphin's study, County Roscommon, 1740
  • Appendix IV: Books in the library at Newbridge House, County Dublin, 1821
  • List of inventory sources
  • List of plates
  • Bibliography
  • Index of personal names
  • General index

Other than Castlecomer House and the bishop's mansion house at Elphin, all the houses featured, some since modified, refashioned or rebuilt, are still standing to this day. Several of them are still the abodes of the same families.

Illustrations

Among the plates in the book are portraits of owners of some of the houses, including:

Book design

The book was designed by Philip Lewis, who chose to set the body in Rosart.[4] This typeface is based on a type specimen by the type-founder Jacques-François Rosart, published in 1768.

Critical reception

The historian and writer Adrian Tinniswood captures the essence of the book when in the Critic, he declares that it is "A box of geeky delights, certainly, but also a fabulous (one might even say indispensable) source for the scholarly study of the Irish country house . . ."[5] He also alludes to the book's "excellent glossary, that essential component of published inventories", a view endorsed by Michael Hall in his review in the Times Literary Supplement.[6]

Robert O'Byrne, the historian of Irish architecture and the decorative arts, reminds us in his review "Listed buildings" in Apollo that household inventories, Irish or otherwise, vary in what they include and what they omit.[7] Such omissions hint at their "fascination and fallibility", he ventures, and goes on to say: "When it comes to country house contents, they provide us with a great deal of information, but rarely all of it". Nevertheless, across the inventories transcribed in the book, spanning some 120 years, he reassures us that "it is possible to see how the decoration and design of affluent Irish households changed".

Writing in Country Life, Kate Green sees historic household inventories that record the contents of rooms as "an essential documentary tool for understanding the use and appearance of houses in the distant past", and, for the benefit of those "with a serious interest in Irish Georgian houses", sees Great Irish Households as "an essential work of reference".[8] The book's usefulness to researchers is likewise acknowledged by James Rothwell, National Curator, Decorative Arts, National Trust, who avers: "[This] will be an invaluable and rich source of information for scholars and I know I will be using it on a regular basis."[9] These views are shared by Christopher Ridgway in the Journal of the History of Collections when he writes: "[T]his collection is a cornucopia of information, and while its primary audience will be scholars and curators, there is plenty to be gleaned from the listings for anyone interested in historic interiors".[10] 'One of the things that make this volume incredibly useful,' asserts David Fleming in Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, 'is the detailed, thematic index that draws each object together, allowing for comparison across the houses.'[11]

Whereas the architectural historian Peter Pearson, reviewing the book for the Irish Arts Review, admires the book, "a beautiful production — elegantly laid out, printed and bound into a neat volume, with a fine dust jacket", he wishes there was more information given about what became of the items listed. "Where are these objects now? Have any survived at all? Only occasionally are we told."[12]

Drawing our attention to the fashion for mahogany in his review in the Furniture History Society Newsletter, Simon Swynfen Jervis writes: "[M]ahogany furniture occupies four columns of Great Irish Households' comprehensive, dense and detailed index, but this very emphasis serves to confirm the stock observation that this wood was particularly popular in well-to-do Irish houses."[13]

In her article about the book in the Irish Times, Bernice Harrison recognizes the usefulness of the transcribed inventories for artistic directors working on historical films. "It's not hard to see how a set designer on a film set in a grand 18th-century house would pore over the details in the book to find out how many paintings to put in the hall, whether there should be a rug on the floor and might it really be made of velvet . . . "[14]

Notes

  1. ↑ Published as a companion volume to Noble Households: Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English Houses.
  2. ↑ She was formerly the Samuel and M. Patricia Grober Associate Curator of European Decorative Arts, The Art Institute of Chicago and co-curated the exhibition Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690–1840 held at the institute, 17 March – 21 June 2015.
  3. ↑ The index of personal names includes house owners as well as sitters in portraits, artists, makers and dealers.
  4. ↑ As Toby Barnard remarks in his foreword, two out of the three listings had been assembled by bishops, "perhaps supporting the contention that the members of the Irish peerage and country gentry were not notably bookish" (see p. 14 of Great Irish Households).
  5. ↑ This inventory was taken during the brief tenure of Charles Boyle, 2nd Earl of Burlington and 3rd Earl of Cork.
  6. ↑ These were taken during James Butler's tenure as 2nd Duke of Ormonde.
  7. ↑ The inventories were drawn up on the death of Robert Howard, who was Church of Ireland bishop of Elphin.
  8. ↑ Inventory previously published, without index to the items, in the Irish Ancestor in 1984 in a transcription by Rosemary ffolliott. Neither Captain Balfour nor his town house has been identified, but the original document is in the Townley Hall Papers at the National Library of Ireland, NLI MS 10,279. David Fleming in his review in Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, 2022, vol. 25, p. 134, writes: '[T]his must have been Captain Harry Townley (1693–1741) of Piedmont, county Louth, who inherited his uncle's estates and changed his surname to Balfour'.
  9. ↑ Both inventories were drawn up for Wills Hill, 2nd Viscount Hillsborough (1742), later 1st Earl of Hillsborough (1751) and 1st Marquess of Downshire (1789).
  10. ↑ Drawn up for Major-General Richard St George.
  11. ↑ This inventory lists and values goods and furniture at the house the year before it was sold by Sackville Gardner to his brother's son, Luke Gardiner (the younger), later 1st Viscount Mountjoy.
  12. ↑ Drawn up for probate on the death of George Lattin, the proprietor and member of a Roman Catholic family which had remained prosperous despite the rise of the Protestant ascendancy (see p. 165 of Great Irish Households).
  13. ↑ This inventory was drawn up for James Hamilton, 8th Earl of Abercorn.
  14. ↑ Drawn up for Anne, Countess of Ormonde, to make a claim after the house was burnt down by rebels during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
  15. ↑ Inventories of 1807 overlaid with one of 1812 and of 1812 revised in 1829, all for Nathaniel Clements, 2nd Earl of Leitrim.
  16. ↑ Inventory of furniture drawn up for William Howard, 3rd Earl of Wicklow.
  17. ↑ Inventory, compiled for probate on the death of Walter Kavanagh, was previously published, without index to the items, in Joyce 2013.
  18. ↑ The longest inventory published in the book, it was compiled for Augustus FitzGerald, 3rd Duke of Leinster shortly before his marriage to Lady Charlotte Augusta Stanhope. Adrian Tinniswood in his review of the book in the Critic remarks: "Great Irish Households is worth buying for the Carton House inventory alone."
  19. ↑ Drawn up for Charles Cobbe (1781–1867), great grandson of Archbishop Cobbe.
  20. ↑ Created for Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry (Lord Castlereagh).

References

  1. ↑ Fenlon 2003, introduction, p. 8.
  2. ↑ See Toby Barnard's foreword, pp. 11–12.
  3. ↑ "The exceptionally full index makes it possible to trace the use of particular types of furniture or material across the course of the century," writes Michael Hall in his review "The Ascendancy at home", Times Literary Supplement, no. 6279, 4 August 2023, pp. 22–3. The Silver Society Newsletter (January 2023, p. 15), outlining the book's contents, highlights the main houses where silver is listed: Baronscourt, Castlecomer House, Dublin Castle (2nd Duke of Ormonde's plate), Mount Stewart and Newbridge House.
  4. ↑ See book's web page.
  5. ↑ Adrian Tinniswood: "A fabulous box of geeky delights / Historic house inventories provide a remarkable insight into building histories". The Critic. February 2023. p. 64. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  6. ↑ See "The Ascendancy at home", Times Literary Supplement, no. 6279, 4 August 2023, pp. 22–3.
  7. ↑ "Listed buildings: O'Byrne reads between the lines of the itemised contents of Irish country houses", or online: "An insider's guide to 18th-century Ireland". Apollo: The International Art Magazine, February 2023, vol.197, no. 716, pp. 90–1, with full-page reproduction of Pompeo Batoni's painting of Ralph Howard, later 1st Viscount Wicklow, and quarter-page reproduction of William van der Hagen's painting of Carton House, County Kildare (p. 10). Retrieved 2 February 2023. In particular, O'Byrne bemoans the fact the Shelton Abbey 1816 inventory of furniture does not include the picture collection. Only some unidentified artworks are recorded there, in fact, listed as being in the 'Store Room' (see Great Irish Households, p. 227).
  8. ↑ Country Life, 16 November 2022, p. 124.
  9. ↑ "Great Irish Households: Inventories from the Long Eighteenth Century".
  10. ↑ Book review: "Great Irish Households: Inventories from the Long Eighteenth Century"., Journal of the History of Collections, March 2023. Accessed 1 March 2023.
  11. ↑ Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies (the journal of the Irish Georgian Society), 2022, vol. 25, p. 136.
  12. ↑ Irish Arts Review, Spring 2023, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 124–5.
  13. ↑ The Furniture History Society Newsletter, no. 230, May 2023, pp. 24–5.
  14. ↑ "How the rich lived in Georgian times". The Irish Times. 5 November 2022. Retrieved 18 November 2022.

Bibliography

  • Fenlon, Jane. Goods & Chattels: A Survey of Early Household Inventories in Ireland, Kilkenny, Heritage Council, Stationery Office, 2003 ISBN 978-0-7557-1778-1 OCLC 57212552
  • ffolliott, Rosemary. "Captain Balfour's auction, 15th March 1741–2", The Irish Ancestor, vol. XVI, no. 1 (1984), pp. 21–31
  • Jervis, Simon Swynfen. British and Irish Inventories: A List and Bibliography of Published Transcriptions of Secular Inventories. Leeds, Furniture History Society, 2010 ISBN 978-0-903335-15-7 OCLC 715291123
  • Joyce, Edmund. Borris House, Co. Carlow, and Elite Regency Patronage, Maynooth studies in local history, no. 108. Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2013 ISBN 978-1-84682-404-3 OCLC 827974018
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